30 Day Halo Challenge - Day 1: Favorite Character

[proxi 9]

So I'm going to do the 30 Days of Halo Challenge in preparation for the Master Chief Collection! Day 1: Favorite Character

The Halo universe is filled with many fantastic characters, and I have had many favorite characters over time, because I would change my mind quite a bit. I have enjoyed the trials of Chakas, the humor of Black Box, the nobility of Kurt-051, and the hardships of John-117. However, my personal favorite character is the Ur-Didact. There are many tragedies within Halo on various levels, however, the Ur-Didact raised the bar.

Shortly after being awoken from his meditation in his Cryptum (the first time) by Bornstellar, the Didact was captured by his political enemy Faber (aka the Master Builder). This was the same guy who developed the Halo idea, which the Didact opposed. He, and some fellow Prometheans, attempted to delay the production of the Halos, and the Master Builder then convinced the Ecumene to exile him into his Cryptum. Anyway, after being captured by Faber, the Didact is stranded in a Burn (a Flood controlled system) for about a year, encapsulated in a stasis bubble. In this time, the rest of the Forerunners believed him to be dead, so he was sort of replaced by the IsoDidact. He wakes up due to power failure, and finds several other Forerunners including a Catalog. The Didact (soon to be titled Ur-Didact, "ur" meaning original in German) and Catalog cover an escape for the rest of the Forerunners that were abandoned there by the Master Builder. The Ur-Didact and Catalog were then captured by the Flood. Here's where things get spiced up. The Gravemind, who shares the same consciousness as the Primordial who the Didact encountered many thousand years before, mentally tormented the Didact, driving him mad. He was then released back to the Forerunners, as the Flood turned the once great warrior into a mindless pawn.

 

"Humans drowned out entire civilizations with the Flood. They brought this horrific parasite to our people. Had we acted quicker, had we taken what was rightfully ours, we could have cut off the infection at its source. Know this: the universe will now be turned star by star, world by world, organism by living thing, into even more of a tortured mockery than it already is. Look what it's done to me! Everything it touches is afflicted with madness. It has touched me. I am myself mad!"

 

He refuses to give up on his alternate solution to the Halo Array. His solution was based off of his Star-Hopping strategy, and he believed that the construction of Shield World fortifications would be the key to stopping the Flood. However, with this new passion, this new madness, he becomes paranoid with the Flood, and experiments with himself to find a solution. This only worsens his mental state. As one of his Promethean comrades points out, the only option remaining is the Composer. The Ur-Didact cannot be composed due to his experimentation on himself, however, his Prometheans volunteer for the job. They are composed and turned into Promethean Knights, however, they were too small in numbers. Not that it matters, his strategy was futile at this point.

 

 

"This quest to fulfill the Mantle has haunted me my entire life. And for countless millennia, we have failed to realize the one truth that could have saved us from the beginning. The Mantle isn't to be inherited by the noble, it is to be taken by the strong."

 

 

The Ur-Didact goes to Installation 07, where the Humans were being held to be cataloged, and composed them for his army (thankfully a few ships carrying human specimen got away, so we're not extinct). The Librarian, his wife who was already horrified at what he had become, was furious. She followed him back to Requiem, and with the help of Endurace, incapacitated the Ur-Didact, and put him into his Cryptum. Within the Cryptum, one's mind is connected to the Domain. The Librarian had done this with the hopes that the Domain would heal what the Flood did to her husband's mind, and he would one day awaken and lead the Humans to victory (with his knowledge of the Mantle as well as the Janus Key). However, the Flood soon informs the Librarian about the truth of the Domain, how it is a Precursor technology, and that the Halo Array (which is being fired at this point) would destroy it. Instead of healing the Didact, his time (the next 100,000 years) in the Cryptum left him only to think of his betrayal and meddle on his madness and rage.

 

So, if that's not sad, I don't know what is. All in all, the Ur-Didact had an awesome character arc, which is definitely not over, and is my favorite character in the Halo Universe.

[AnimeAddict]

eh idk as far as my favorite halo character even tho its over rated i have to say its SGT Johnson

[Melody]

Cortana, because she helps Chief through thick and thin.